FBI Search For Body Continues

Published: May 28, 1999 12:00 AM

A recent tip about the disappearance of an area woman more than two decades ago has led FBI investigators to an apartment complex in Seville where they have been told the woman's body is buried.

FBI SPOKESMAN ROBERT HAWK walks from the site where investigators sort through material dug from a garage floor Thursday at Breckenridge Apartments in Seville. The FBI is leading the search for the remains of a body possibly buried under the floor more than 20 years ago. Linda Hall photo

"We received information that a body could be in this apartment complex," said Robert Hawk, a spokesman for the FBI in Cleveland. "We are trying to determine if that is true."

Investigators began digging Wednesday on the grounds of Breckenridge Apartments on Grace Lane, located off Greenwich Road near the Interstate 71 interchange.

Joining the FBI in its search are sheriff's detectives from Wayne and Medina counties and the West Windsor, N.J., police department.

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"If it was a homicide, it occurred years and years ago," Hawk said, noting that the time frame was probably more than two decades ago.

Hawk said the FBI received a tip "a week or so ago" that a body may be buried beneath the cement floor of a garage in one of the apartments at the Seville complex. Hawk said the tip is connected to a missing persons case the FBI's New York division has been investigating the last 18 months.

Hawk would not divulge who tipped off the FBI in New York.

The body, "allegedly deposited under cement in the garage, is believed to be an individual "not connected with organized crime, not celebrity status or prominent in the news; no one of notoriety, no one nefarious," Hawk said.

The body is suspected to be that of a "local person at the time," an individual from Medina County, Hawk said.

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"There was a missing persons report filed at the time," said Hawk, who would not comment on circumstances surrounding that individual's disappearance.

The investigation being conducted bears resemblance to an archaeological dig, as cement and other garage floor material are carried in pieces by wheelbarrow and bucket from the apartment unit to a blue tent set up in the parking lot and sorted through screens.

Hawk confirmed that material is being "sifted inch by inch."

Investigators began Wednesday "looking for anything that could be human remains," he said. They are also searching for items of clothing or other accessories.

Other methods of examination being used are "the most sophisticated means that we have possible," Hawk said, including a dog trained to track human remains and radar. The van used for storage and cataloguing and other parts of the investigation has been parked at the apartment complex site.

The investigation is expected to continue for "as long as it takes." As of Thursday, "no conclusive evidence" had been found, Hawk said. "We have not determined whether a body is there."

Hawk would not comment on the investigation's connection with the New Jersey police department participation.

Wayne County Sheriff Thomas Maurer was at the site late Thursday afternoon. "The case is still under investigation and is moving forward. We just can't discuss it," he said.